We Can Rebuild the Party

 Bill spells it out best. Take heart, they have not won yet.

Tell those guys to NOT meet at the breakers and save the money and get the REAL BASE VOTERS involved in real forums. Have EVERY COUNTY CHAIR and every RNC state rep involved in the process of what we need to do to "Rebuild the party".  Get a 50-state plan, and a "State-level plan" for EVERY STATE on this.

My 10-point plan for rebuilding, which I wrote for our local party (Travis county TX) in  2007 is relevent:

http://travismonitor.blogspot.com/2008/11/no-place-to-go-but-up-strategy...

1. Servant-leadership

2. Develop a simple, clear, positive platform (like Contract with America)

3. Rebuild the Republican brand

4. Conduct outreach to build the base

5. Get involved and attuned to local issues and local races

6. Recruit for campaigns - run in every race

7. Engage the Media and inject conservative views into the media

8. Wage political “guerrilla” campaigns that leverage new communications technologies

9. Financing campaigns - coordinate campaign funding locally for best ROI

10. GOTV infrastructure for maximum grassroots effectiveness

11. Rebuild our internal cohesiveness and unity

And parting thought ... NO DOWN TIME. Dont wait for campaign season. Rebuild, do reachout, build the brand, get recruiting, get unified ... NOW.

or will the next GOP campaign resemble Logan's Run  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logan%27s_Run_(1976_film)

FWIW, on the one campaign I had any involvement with this cycle it seemed the two mature staffers were useful, while the kid press secretary buried his own boss when a snarky twitter post went public.  I'd rather have competent older people use new ideas than deal with immaturity in what is a serious and unforgiving business. 

While your effort is commendable, your plan, as it is presently designed, will almost certainly fail. 

There is an old adage that goes something like this: If you want to play against the winning team, you have play on the same field.  While your plan is great, you are not playing on the same field as those power centers within the Republican Party.

The very first step of your plan should have included instructions to go to this Website and find your local Republican Party headquarters.

Step 2.  Find out when and where the next meeting of your local county GOP meeting will be held and attend.

Step 3. Find out if your Executive Committee seat is vacant or filled. If it is vacant, move to fill it, according to the adopted by-laws. If it is filled, seek the "Alternate" seat. If that is filled as well, keep attending and wait until there is an opening.

Secondly, if you want to be different than the present power centers within the Party and not just simply switch places with them, don't start off like them with your "Grand" plan -- that an elite group of leaders put together so all of us mere minions need do is follow the plan.  I understand your plan calls for secondary input from us, grassrooters,  but let's START with "The People" and work up. There is no reason why we all can't participate in every aspect of  turning the Grand Old Party into the New People's Party.

 Lastly:  Did you run this plan passed Justin Sayfie and get his approval? Justin and I go way, way back. I would be surprised if he has approved of this plan in its present form.

           ex animo

 Operation Rednet  

           davidfarrar

Greetings from deep in the heart of enemy territory.  I am writing to you from Seattle, WA, where the GOP candidate to unseat Congressman-for-Life Jim McDermott lost by 84:15.  This was running against an incumbent legislator who not only does not campaign, but frankly, does not do very much for his district and is "proud" of the fact that he does not send money home.

I haven't seen the city or precinct level voting breakdown for McCain vs Obama, but I suspect you are looking at similar margins.

So how did this happen?

On economic issues, city folks have opinions that are a lot more diverse than you might think.  Nobody likes paying taxes, and a lot of people are skeptical about big social programs and what not.  Arguing for small government, a larger private sector involvement in infrastructure projects, and equal opportunity initiatives is a winning strategy.

On social issues?  I'd say we're a lot more homogenous.  Living next to all sorts of different people means that we all kind of rub along and as long as they're not dealing drugs in the alley or firing bullets through the window, we're kind of indifferent to what they do in their own homes.  Spending time arguing cultural issues seems like a waste of time at best, and scares us off at worst.

Even if Sarah Palin was a more eloquent and informed speaker, her position as the standard bearer for rural, white, Protestant America was a foul-up of the first order.  Treat the party like a business.  You're selling a brand.  The first rule of business is DON'T PISS OFF YOUR CUSTOMERS!

On a broader basis, you have to lose the nutty wing of your party or draw a bright line against them.  Immigration reform?  Good.  Being associated in any way with nativists like Tom Tracendo or the Minutemen?  Bad.  Against Al Gore's leftist economic remedies for global warming?  Fine.  Standing and denying there's an issue and using junk science to justify it?  Not good.

From a strategic perspective, the country is becoming more and more urbanized.  Some states were lost due to bad organization.  Virginia and NC were lost because the number of city folks and suburbanites swamped the rural population, shifting the voting percentages.  There are no demographic shifts in store that will push people further out into the country.  Everything is pointing in exactly the opposite direction.  With the party as it stands, you will be playing defense for the next 10 years.

Why do I care?  I like urban living, but I'm sick and tired of single-party politics.  One-party organizations lead to complacency and corruption.  Always.  You guys could win here if you thought the problem out a bit, but instead you bring in God, Guns, and Guts idiots like the tool who lost to Congressman-For-Life McDermott and then walk away saying "Seattlites are just hopless libs.  Forget it."

I will vote for Republicans who promote competency and good government.  I will never vote for "family values" Republicans.  Understand this and you can grow the party (and the core philosophies of personal freedom and limited government) a lot more than you can by fellating bible-belt voters.

Go out and rebuild the party guys.  The country is counting on it.

Palin can do the fiscal responsibility walk.  It's not that hard:  use the veto pen.  Keep in mind, when we're talking about cultural issues here, that the pro-abortion and pro-gay marriage audiences are going to back the Democrat anyway.  You think Bill Maher is going to vote Republican anytime soon?  No, and we shouldn't worry about appeasing those types with our selection of a nominee.

Palin has another advantage:  everybody in the whole country (already) sees that the press is out to get her.

 The major, major problem with the petition is that it offers up a list of new tactics for conservatives to take - use the Internet better, try to find a way to make Latinos understand we can help them. 

But nothing on the new idea front. Zippo. 

Where is the call for alternatives to the new WPA that Obama is proposing?
Where is a willingness to find a center-right ground on issues like abortion and immigration?
Sorry, social conservatives, but I think your absolutist stance is the first thing the new Republican Party needs to shed. 

Looks like 2010 is going to be another lean year.

After spending some time on this site, and registering at RebuildTheParty.com, I have to say:  Thank God I'm not alone!  I'm a fifty-something software developer living in a deep blue city, and I've just spent the last year trying to become active within the local Republican organization.  I am deeply embarrassed by what I've found.

It all started with a newspaper article mentioning that most of the local committee positions are unfilled.  I thought that perhaps I could take one of those seats, learn something about politics at the local level, and offer a couple of ideas.  The website for the city committee is a horror, and certain to send most tech savvy voters running away screaming.  The average first attempt with FrontPage looks better.

I was eventually able to make contact, but these people might as well be living in the Stone Age.  They do not send out emails, and so far as I know, don't even maintain an email address list.  I am allegedly on the County committee too, but I have never received a single email or invitation from the County organization.

When the election was approaching, I volunteered to help in any way I could, poll watching, handing out leaflets, anything.  I was never contacted, never given a job to do.  I could go on, but I think I've made my point:  In many places, the people running the Party have no idea how to use the Internet.  It will not be enough to try and educate them; we are going to have to replace them.

Being able to vote on who becomes the local chairman, at least in my city, requires being elected to a chair on the committee not just being appointed like myself.  Anyone who wants to have leverage within the Party, needs to find out how to join the local committee, file the necessary papers to get on the ballot when it's time for an election, and then show up for the meetings.

On the day after the election, Jim Quinn and Glenn Beck both talked about the need to rebuild the party, so there are sympathetic voices in talk radio.  Give them a reason, and they'll drive traffic to websites like this one.

Now, if only we can avoid destroying ourselves with infighting...

I'm a conservative voter who's generally pulled the R lever in elections. Having read this piece I'm concerned. It's good strategy and tactics, and that's necessary given what's happened to the Republican party in 2006 and 2008, but it isn't enough.

Repeat: good tactics. Howard Dean, for all his foolishness, had the right idea in 2005 to rebuild the Dems, and it's worked. So whatever one does for the Republicans, it's also necessary.

But you don't excite voters with process. And you can't just state your principles. You need to link principles to process and action, and the link is the ideas that are put forward.

No ideas = no excitement.

Proof of this? 1994. Contract with America. A basic set of ideas, carefully honed and tested, that were ready to go when the Democrats fell flat. The ideas were simple, easily understood, easily marketed, and -- importantly -- implemented.

So you need ideas, and these ideas need to be hammered out, tested with polling, and adopted by the Republicans in the Congress, the state houses, and in local committees.

Which ideas? There's the rub. They need to work, to be simple, to be specific enough, and yet be 'big tent' enough to get conservatives and a majority of independents excited. It does no good to get embroiled in fights over ideas that have no chance of being adopted in the near future (e.g., repealing Roe v Wade -- not going to happen so don't waste time). I'll suggest a few here --

1) election reform: Republicans should stand for mandatory, free, government issued photo voter registration cards, transparent voter rolls, paper ballots, and making false registration a felony.

2) immigration reform: Republicans should stand for controlling the border, imprisoning human smugglers, punishing employers who hire illegals, easing legal immigration, and creating a simple pathway to legal residency for long-time illegals once the border is controlled.

3) media reform: Republicans should stand against the 'fairness doctrine', against net neutrality, against giving our internet to the UN, and stand FOR the alternative media.

4) energy reform: Republicans should stand for off-shore drilling, sharing revenues with states that permit off-shore drilling, flex-fuel cars, development of clean coal, and the substantial building of nuclear power. Republicans should stand against cap-and-trade and against new taxes on energy.

5) economic reform: Republicans stand fight to end earmarks, to repeal Sarbanes-Oxley, to stop 'card-check', to ensure that mortgage mess is never repeated, and to simplify tax brackets for income and capital gains.

6) health care reform: Republicans should push for modern IT to connect people with their medical needs, government research to demonstrate what medical care works best, to have Medicaid replaced with government sponsored HSAs for the poor, and to make health insurance portable for people who change jobs.

That's already too wordy, but starting with key ideas, a party can boil them down to what works best as a platform. Simplify, simplify -- that's the lesson of the Contract with America.

We need process, strategy and tactics to win seats back in 2010. But without ideas all the brilliant strategy in the world is for naught. Put principles in practice, and provide a reason for voters to vote Republican.

This plan sets goals for recruiting and fundraising, but doesn't exactly explain how the GOP will reach those goals except for one shallow target of "under-40" candidates.

This is a top-down approach that will fail at the grassroots level. Dean, Paul, and Huckabee did not develop grassroots success because they established recruiting and fundraising goals and then went out to meet them. (Obama is excluded because he benefitted heavily from the previous work of Dean and the 50-state strategy)

Those candidates succeeded precisely because they supported issues that resonated with the voters that felt neglected by the major parties. The grassroots came to them and they took advantage of it.

Dean - anti-war sentiment over Iraq

Paul - small-government fiscal conservatism

Huckabee - compassionate social conservatism (i.e. the real deal)

After Dean's loss in 2004 to the traditional DNC candidate, there was a struggle for power in the party after Kerry's loss. It was precisely because Dean and his supporters won that struggle that the Democratic party became responsive to the liberal grassroots.

Interestingly, there were two separate conservative grassroots movements within the Republican party in 2008. Like Dean's, both were squashed by the party. Now, ask yourself: "What as the GOP done to embrace either of these movements?" After all, you cannot create these movements out of whole cloth simply because you want to emulate their success.

Does either Ron Paul or Mike Huckabee and their supporters have a seat of power within the GOP party structure? If not, then it is easy to predict the chances of a true grassroots-based movement within the GOP in 2010.

Dean Scontras was an OUTSTANDING congressional candidate.......please check out:

www.republicanproject.org

Thanks